2008-09-24

Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, a longtime Chicago Cubs fan and Wrigley field attendee, has just penned a tribute song to the Cubs just in time for their big playoff push in what has to be their most hopeful season since 1989 (strong pushes exist for highly ranking the 1998 and 2003 seasons, the latter of which saw me in the stands around this time five years ago, but the 1989 season was the last one with this much promise (and the .574 winning percentage). May 2008 end without a 1-4 drubbing in the NLCS like that fateful year. Before '89 and '84 you have to go all the way back to '72 for even a second place showing (and back to the infamous goat-series in '45 before another first place showing). This is a club that's waited 99 years and counting for a World Series (I once saw a homemade Cubs T-shirt in 2005 that said "86 years is nothing").

Which, as I gleefully pointed out to a big Pearl Jam fan, might just explain all of the angst and mournful moping in Vedder's lyrics/voice. Being a Cubs fan leaves you feeling the need to listen to "Corduroy" with the lights off and a bottle of whiskey in your hand come early October more often than not, and there has to be more than an idle connection.

(This posts' title is an idle connection though, as the Jets hung on for two years longer than Cobain)